PPP calls for update on draft Juvenile Justice Bill

… as Govt goes silent on overdue legislation

After holding a number of public consultations in different regions and promising to have the draft Juvenile Justice Reform Bill brought before Cabinet in 2016, these efforts seem to have petered out as the coalition Government has gone silent on when, if ever, the Bill will be laid in Parliament.

Former Culture, Youth and Sport Minister, Dr Frank Anthony played an integral part in drafting the Bill under the previous Government. Today, he is concerned about the lack of movement on the Bill and feedback from the Government on what may be added or subtracted from the draft as a result of the consultations.

“It was drafted when we were in Government, but it didn’t go to Parliament, because there were changes that we wanted to make,” he said during a recent interview with this publication. He questioned what has become of the current Government’s efforts.

“They (Government) seem to be lagging, but last year they had a series of consultations on the Bill. I remember attending one at the Pegasus. And I actually participated in the discussion, explaining some of the nuances of the Bill. But since then, I don’t know what has been the outcome of the consultations.”

According to Dr Anthony, the Bill had contained some good measures and proposals. But the consultations had exposed a lack of consensus among the public on issues such as (increasing) the age of criminal responsibility.

“In the Bill, some of the discussions we were having had been where would you place the age of criminal responsibility. In our current law the age of responsibility is 10 years. There were people who wanted to take it up to 12; there were others who felt it should go up to 14 or even higher. So there wasn’t a consensus. The consultations should have been able to clarify (that).”

He noted that the Bill had contained other provisions, including alternative sentences such as community work.

Asked whether the Government should not have been keeping the public updated on what was going on with a Bill affecting the livelihood of a large section of the population, Dr Anthony said that they should.

“They should, because I think people would like to know where they are with it, at what stage (they are). If those (consultations have been completed, then people should be hearing from them what are the outcomes of those consultations, where do we go next and how soon maybe they will be putting this bill in parliament for us to debate it.”

No jailhouse nation

The most visible proponent of juvenile justice reform in the current Government has been Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan. Describing it as making sure Guyana does not become a jail house nation; Ramjattan had noted at the first consultation that retaining offences such as wandering, vagrancy and truancy as status offences was an injustice against juveniles.

He had stated that they criminalize behavioural problems of children, when these acts are often the result of psychological or socio-economic problems. Thus, he had said, they should be abolished as offences.

According to Ramjattan, jails and secure confinement are not the place where most young people who have committed offences should be.

It is expected that the draft Bill will seek to make sweeping changes to existing legislation, including removing status offences such as wandering. There are even proposals to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 years.

Some of the measures the Bill is expected to contain are an emphasis on alternatives to prison and formal court proceedings. During the consultations, Ramjattan had also spoken of the involvement of the offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions and Youth in alternative sentencing arrangements. The Bill also focused on the role of the Police.

Former United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) representative to Guyana and Suriname, Marianne Flach, had also expressed her organisation’s support for the move.

According to Flach, it puts Guyana in a favourable position with other Caribbean countries, including the eastern Caribbean. She was also supportive of raising the age of criminal responsibility.

Persons who attended the consultations had called for an increase in the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14. There was also a call for intervention from religious organisations for first-time offenders in terms of counselling before putting the matter before the courts.